Donatas Motiejunas might not join Houston Rockets until next season – NBA Update
The Houston Rockets first round pick Donatas Motiejunas has decided to stay in Italy for the duration of the lockout. The player was taken by the Rockets with the 20th overall pick. However, as it turns out, he won’t be unloading his stuff in Houston any time soon.
The NBA’s lockout is affecting the plans of many young players drafted from Europe this season. The option of spending time in their current league’s is starting to become a popular choice, now that the lockout has begun and there is a real danger of NBA games being lost and the season shortening or being called off altogether.
Donatas Motiejunas has taken a look at the situation and decided to stay with his current team Benetton Treviso rather than come over to the United States and stay idle until the lockout is over, which could be a long time.
Benetton Treviso have offered Donatas a contract and the 7-footer seems to like the idea of staying. He said so during a recent interview and also pointed out that Benetton Treviso won’t have an issue with him leaving once, or if, the NBA season gets under way.
“I still have a contract with Benetton,” said Motiejunas, “They told me if I want to leave in the middle of the season when the team that took me, Houston, wants me, they would let me go. That will be no problem.”
Motiejunas plays centre in Europe but is likely to play power forward once he makes the move to the Houston Rockets. Rockets already have Yao Ming on the roster and it would be hard for Motiejunas to dislodge him from the starting centre spot. His game also favours the latter role more as his outside shooting and smart play could be an asset at power forward, while most people don’t consider him as tough enough to play centre in the NBA, not yet at least.
Donatas needs to work on some aspect of his game though and now it seems like he will do that in Italy. The player revealed that he was happy to have the chance to continue at his current club with the option of leaving once the Rockets call and also commented that he was sad due to the whole lockout situation in the NBA,
“That’s why I’m happy, and a little bit sad. The situation is very tough right now. I don’t really want to go away from the team. I’m not happy about that. That was one of the greatest things that happened in my life, that this team picked me.”
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